Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFIDs) are low-cost, passive “smart” chips or “tags” that can be embedded in or attached to articles, products, and the like, to convey information about the product via a scanner. The smart tags are generally small label-like devices with a micro-chip and a miniature embedded antennae. The tags may be passive or active, the active tags requiring an internal power supply. A reader or scanner interrogates the smart tag with an electronic “trigger” signal. The tag in turn generates an electromagnetic pulse response that is readable by the scanner, the response containing the product information. RFID smart tags can be embedded in or attached to product packaging, or incorporated directly into the product, and may convey conventional “bar code” information, as well as other more detailed information.
Various commercial applications have been suggested for smart tags, particularly in the area of retail marketing and sales. For example, RFID technology may be used to gather information related to consumer trends, purchasing habits, consumption rates, etc. It has also been suggested that RFID technology has promise in the areas of inventory control, manufacturing process and control, product accountability and tracking systems, etc. Manufacturers, shippers, and retailers may be able to follow a given product through their respective systems from initial production through to point of sale. It has been suggested that other applications may include shopping carts that automatically charge a bank account, refrigerators that tap into the Internet to automatically reorder items that are running low, and interactive televisions linked to such refrigerators that will feed targeted commercials and special offers to consumers. (See, “They Know What You Eat,” by Kayte VanScoy, Smart Business, January 2001).
The present invention relates to a novel implementation of RFID technology for ensuring that substances are not stored in potentially dangerous or hazardous combinations.
The storage of hazardous, toxic, or dangerous chemicals, biological samples, explosive substances, and the like, often involves ensuring that such materials are stored separately and away from certain other materials, or are not inadvertently mixed in dangerous combinations. For example, certain chemicals are fairly stable and non-reactive in their base state, but may become highly volatile and reactive in the presence of another chemical, even minute amounts of such chemical. Certain combinations of chemicals are toxic, corrosive, explosive, etc., and care must be taken that dangerous combinations of chemicals are not inadvertently created in storage of the chemicals. Similarly, in medical or laboratory facilities, it is important that potentially infectious or otherwise dangerous biological samples be stored separately from food products or other consumable goods. Various other scenarios exist wherein it is important to separately store different classes or types of materials.
Despite precautions taken with conventional storage methods and systems, the possibility of materials or dangerous substances being inadvertently combined or stored in hazardous proximity to other substances is still fairly high. Present precautionary measures and accountability methods largely rely on human controls and vigilance and, despite the best of efforts and intentions, mistakes can be made.
The present invention provides a RFID system and methodology for minimizing the likelihood that chemicals and other materials are inadvertently stored or combined in a potentially hazardous or dangerous manner.